FUNDING THE „GREENING” OF THE EU RURAL AREA. THE COVID-19 CRISIS IMPACT

Abstract

Successive reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) have led to increasingly shifting of agriculture towards the market, while integrating environmental protection requirements and strengthening support for rural development in all the Member States of the European Union. This article aims to present the results of our research on a) dynamic of the "greening" process in the rural area of the European Union to combat climate change; b) the funding mechanisms for the programs implementation and greening payments to farmers, revealing some critical considerations on how greening and agro -environmental measures were applied into the EU rural area in 2014-2020 and c) the perspectives of the greening process by 2021-2027, as well as the financial allocations in the new Multiannual Financial Framework. The results confirm the European Commission's ambitions regarding the Community's rural area in the context of the European Green Deal and the measures initiated under the European Recovery and Resilience Plan, in order to promptly overcome the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords

• greening
• agriculture finance
• rural development
• climate change
• european green deal
• pandemic